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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26139355">And our steady True North fades (We’ll be Just Fine)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/KenkuKry/pseuds/KenkuKry'>KenkuKry</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Video Blogging RPF</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Space, Gen, I am very tired, Isolation, Kevin is pretty much a cuttlefish, Not beta read we die to crabsquids, One Shot, Subnautica Elements, as he Deserves, for now 👀</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 03:54:15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,931</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26139355</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/KenkuKry/pseuds/KenkuKry</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When Daniel's ship crashes, he feels desperately alone. Luckily, one of his crewmates(or at least, he thinks it is), survives too.</p>
<p>Kevin just wants a friend.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Daniel Condren &amp; Kevin O'Reilly, No Romantic Relationship(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>51</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>And our steady True North fades (We’ll be Just Fine)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/7AlpacasInATrenchcoat/gifts">7AlpacasInATrenchcoat</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Title is from West - Sleeping at Last!</p>
<p>Am I posting this after watching RT's vod where he read fanfiction? Yes<br/>Did I have a near heart attack watching it? Yes</p>
<p>Note: This was going to be probably multichaptered, but I already have a couple things in the process rn(make my messes matter IS going to have another chapter, I've just been planning things). So, it seems a bit more compact then it should be, as it was a result of a Big Brainstorm.</p>
<p>Thank you to Feugh, for being such a lovely and wonderful person. Always supporting my writing and being an overall great mate to have on the vt server.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Shit, fuck, ah god, shit, no no no no no no no no nononono-</p>
<p>Daniel may not be an engineer but even he knows that <em> bright, flashing red lights </em> are not a good sign. At all. He also knows that falling at increasing speeds to a planet you were supposed to be orbiting is also something that isn’t supposed to happen.</p>
<p>So, Daniel has reason to panic.</p>
<p>He’s just a marine scientist, for god’s sake! What was he supposed to do about <em> technical difficulties, system shutdown  </em> and  <em> ever -- no, immediately impending doom. </em> All Dan was here for was to tell if the fish here swam in a similar pattern to fish on Earth or… Something. They hadn’t really told him what he was doing, ‘top secret space expedition’ or whatever.</p>
<p>But any of Dan’s knowledge of whale anatomy or sea pressure didn’t matter when the honest to god <em> spaceship </em>  is crashing. It doesn’t matter when the planet of endless water is filling the sight of the external cameras-  <em> oh god the cameras cut out </em> . The cameras cut out and all he can hear is the roaring from outside of the escape pod. He can only feel the cool steel of the sides of his seat under his hands, pale from his tight grip. He can only hear the deafening, screaming sound from outside and from inside and he’s  <em> screaming </em> and-</p>
<p>Everything blacks out.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>~~~</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It looks like a meteor at midday.</p>
<p><em> Huh, meteorites don’t appear during the day,  </em>Kevin thinks to himself, treading water.</p>
<p><em> Huh, meteorites come so nearby usually,  </em>Kevin thinks to himself as the ‘meteorite’ tears into separate pieces, some crashing near him.</p>
<p>Kevin may not be knowledgeable on meteors, but he knows that this is probably not one.</p>
<p>So, he has to investigate.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>~~~</p>
<p> </p>
<p>With laboured breathing, Dan feels the sunlight dapple his skin. With aching limbs, Dan feels the rigid edges of the crumpled heap of a seat beneath him. With blurry eyes, he wakes up.</p>
<p>Wait, he wakes up?</p>
<p>It all hits him at once, the ship shutting down. The person manning the radio screaming for everyone to get to an escape pod. The person who maintained the ship pushed him into the one closest before shutting it and running off. The sight of the pod leaving the ship along with others.</p>
<p>Passing out to endless noise.</p>
<p>He feels the bile rise to his throat while he lays on his back, staring at the endless sky. An endless sky that he traversed and is now only limited to the size of the (apparently extremely strong) glass porthole.</p>
<p>He can’t even remember their <em> names </em>.</p>
<p>He's still alive and he can feel the sunlight from the porthole and he can’t remember, he can’t remember, <em> he can’t remember. </em></p>
<p>His hands are reaching for his face, his hair. Nails that had been chewed, unevenly, absentmindedly, scratching his skin and scalp. He’s shaking, he’s shaking, his hands are shaking, the pod is shaking, it’s so <em> loud </em>-</p>
<p>He can’t breathe. Daniel is lost in the middle of fuck-knows-where, Middle of Space and he can’t <em> breathe </em>.</p>
<p>God, why does the inside of the pod have to be <em> white </em> , of all things? It’s so bright, even when he’s squeezing his eyes shut so hard figures dance along the bloody red surface. Honest to god, how does this place have a sun? The astronomers said things about ‘Goldilocks Zones’, ‘planetary spheres’ and ‘magnetosphere’. Never anything about the sun that’s too bright, to warm,  <em> too loud- </em></p>
<p>Does it even matter, anymore? The astronomer is gone. Dan’s alone and doesn’t have anyone to blame.</p>
<p>Oh god, he’s alone.</p>
<p>No one is going to save him, no one is going to comfort him.</p>
<p>Dan is going to die alone, in a semi-stable escape pod, floating in an endless sea that’s floating so far away from Earth. So far away from home.</p>
<p>A weak, frail, keening fills the empty, colourless pod. Laying on the ground, hapless and hopeless. Daniel Condren, the renowned marine biologist, falls apart at the seams.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>~~~</p>
<p> </p>
<p>So, it’s a human, apparently. One of those things that they had been researching, they had been ‘dangerous’ or something.</p>
<p>Working in groups, humans could take out the largest of enemies with just sheer force of numbers. They were intelligent enough to make a lot of pretty advanced languages. Humans were the only other ones than Kevin’s people that had that kind of understanding, from what they know.</p>
<p>Kevin actually knows one of the more common human languages! He copied over one of the language modules before, well… <em> Those  </em>things happened.</p>
<p>He doesn’t want to think about Those Things, anyway.</p>
<p>Anyway, the human.</p>
<p>This human doesn’t look ‘dangerous’, it doesn’t have any weaponry. It doesn’t have any other humans around it. There’s no way it could be a threat.</p>
<p>(In the small part of Kevin that remained after Those Things, he almost thinks the human looks lonely)</p>
<p>The human, at the moment, is fast asleep. Kevin can see it through the small hole, laying on it’s back in a way that <em> must  </em>be uncomfortable. It’s rather pale, with hair sprouting from its head. The human is rather strange looking, Kevin must admit. Wait, was it true they can’t swim?</p>
<p>With no apparent tail, fins, or any other way to swim, it must be true. Huh, strange. Why would a human be here, then?</p>
<p>The human gave more questions than answered. So, for once he had to thank Past Kevin for his mild interest in humans. With relative ease, Kevin turned his complexion into one similar to an image of a human he saw.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>(How long had it been since he saw that image? Months? Years?)</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em> Curiosity could have killed the frog </em> , Kevin shrugged to himself, <em>  but then it found it could walk </em>.</p>
<p>Wait, he didn’t have those things that humans wear! How could he pass as a human when he didn’t have the… Clothes! Clothes, they must be somewhere, maybe in another part of the not-meteor that fell from the sky?</p>
<p>Flaring his fins (he should really flatten them, even in one of the human colours they are very blatant), he sped off. His destination, an empty one he had inspected earlier. There had to be clothes there.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>~~~</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Daniel woke the next morning (morning? Midday? He couldn’t know anymore) to a light tapping noise. At first, his stomach sank at the idea of the escape pod malfunctioning too, then he looked up.</p>
<p>There was… something. Something tapping at the porthole above him turned into a silhouette from the sunlight.</p>
<p>Semi-delirious from bad sleeping patterns, he mumbled “tis a visitor tapping at my chamber door. Only this and nothing more,” laughing at one of the nerdiest jokes he’s ever made. But seriously, an alien planet? Ecosystem able to sustain life? Uh oh.</p>
<p>The closest thing to a weapon he had was a piece of metal that had been shaken loose. It was sorta cylindrical and the length of his arm. So he held it like a bat as he crept closer to the porthole.</p>
<p>“Hello?” Yea, smart move Daniel. Taking to some sea monster <em> and </em> giving away that you’re inside? Not the smartest of moves.</p>
<p>There was a beat of silence as the tapping stopped. “Hey there, could you let me in?”</p>
<p>Daniel nearly passed out from shock at the voice. What the hell? Honest to god, what the hell?!</p>
<p>The escape pod has released some stats after his minor breakdown. Apparently, his survival was near impossible, what was even more unlikely was other people’s survival. Over the day he had grown to accept that he was entirely alone. Now? His feelings were a gradient of amazed, hopeful, and terrified.</p>
<p>There was another pause as Dan contemplated what he was doing. The person outside simply waited silently. In a sudden movement, filled with the desperation of maybe not being alone, he dropped his pseudo-weapon. Dan reached up and threw down the folded ladder to the porthole. With a quick few steps, he was up the ladder and opening it.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Huh, the sky is really blue. </p>
<p>So was the ocean that extended to the horizon, glittering in the sunlight. If it wasn’t for the existential dread that he felt seeing it, Dan would call it beautiful.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Uh, hi.”</p>
<p>Dan nearly jumped when he was brought back into the moment. Spinning around, he saw… A man? He didn’t recognise the face, but he’s having issues remembering anyone’s faces right now (well that’s a breakdown for later). </p>
<p>“Uh, hello. How did you survive the ship crash?” Daniel instantly winced at his own wording, that wasn’t a good question at all. God, the dude is going to hate him-</p>
<p>A short burst of laughter cut of his thoughts, “I should be asking that to you too.” The guy had an easy-going expression on his face, a complete oxymoron to Dan’s previous lamentings.</p>
<p>It was nice. Refreshing.</p>
<p>“Come in, I swear I'm burning under this sun,” Daniel gestured to the porthole. Slipping into a basic routine. Greet the guest, invite them in, offer them food then have a nice chat. But now it’s not his house and he’s in the middle of the ocean, on a planet impossibly far from home, with a man he can’t recognise(but he should, shouldn’t he?).</p>
<p>Daniel grants himself the small mercy of not thinking about that too much.</p>
<p>“Of course! Thanks,” the man swiftly climbs down. Daniel notices the bandages on his arm, <em> maybe I did get off lucky, I hope he’s alright </em>. He follows down afterwards, nearly slipping.</p>
<p>There’s silence once again as Dan avoids eye contact. In his peripheral, the man he can’t remember seems quite intrigued by the situation, glancing around his pod.</p>
<p>“So, uh, sorry for this but,” he took a sharp breath, “I can’t really... Remember many faces or names right now? Sorry, but- I’ll just introduce myself.”</p>
<p>Painting a simple smile on his face, he said quickly “hi, I’m Daniel Condren, Marine Scientist currently -- well was -- on the Gamma Aqua mission.”</p>
<p>The dude looks at him for another few seconds, then following “hi! My name’s Kevin, I think I worked on something similar to you?” That drew a chuckle from Dan while they shook hands, “lovely to meet you.”</p>
<p>“Same to you,” he nodded shortly.</p>
<p>It’s sort of awkward, talking to someone you don’t know. Even more awkward talking to someone you don’t know that knows you. </p>
<p>That used to happen a lot, back home. His parent’s friends talked about how they met him as a baby. Old school friends that he weaved a conversation out of never saying their names. Now, where he stands talking to a coworker that he would’ve remembered a couple days ago, it's even more disorientating.</p>
<p>Sentimentality is not a good trait to be away from Earth with. Even worse, being unable to return home with</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>(He had missed his parents for a while on the ship, but always reassured himself that he'd come back. He told them he'd come back safe.)</p>
<p>(Daniel wonders how his mum is doing right now)</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I think you have amnosia,” Kevin stated with acute confidence.</p>
<p>“Do you mean amnesia?”</p>
<p>Kevin stared at a wall, slightly agape at that. Dan had to restrain from laughing, but let his grin show nonetheless.</p>
<p>“No, amnosia. It’s different from amnesia, it’s just not medically recognised.”</p>
<p>Daniel had never seen a man so confidently state such a dumbass sentence. He was really impressed. Impressed enough to be incapable of holding back his laughter.</p>
<p>When he looked up, Kevin was smiling back.</p>
<p>Maybe things are going to be okay.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Maybe.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>So, additional in universe things(aka things that would have been revealed if this was multichapter)<br/>The Gamma Aqua expedition was due to the discovery of sentient beings infiltrating Earth. This was Kevin's species, that had been doing it for years.<br/>Dan collects information about this as he goes.<br/>Kevin finds it more difficult to hide every time.</p>
<p>uhh,, kevin's species are also similar to cuttlefish, so that's why he can just .. change appearance.</p>
<p>Thank you for reading!! Comments are appreciated and loved &lt;3 (I'm getting in the habit of replying please-)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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